What happens when housemates hook up?

Is it love? Marriage? A baby in a carriage? Well for some people, yes!

A recent survey of more than 2000 people aged between 18 and 34, found 24% of housemates have hooked up, and of those 4% have gone on to get married.

Mathew and MadeleineGray form part of that 4%.

Friends for a year and a half before their relationship evolved, the two tied the knot in March last year.

Madeleine says she felt a degree of risk before hooking up with her future husband – because of their close living arrangements in a Melbourne share house.

“I said I would never live with a couple, so I didn’t want to make it awkward for the other housemates,” she says.

But there are no regrets here. The pair has a gorgeous toddler, Theodor.

“We’re a little family, and we’re loving life!”

Tracy Schweitzer and Tim Benstead have just bought a house after almost three years together. They met as strangers in a Brisbane share house.

Tracy says Tim was a “dream” flatmate. He was tidy, healthy and ate well.

“I shared a bathroom with him and I remember thinking: ‘I’m going to have to lift my game, this guy’s cleaner than I am’,” she says.

Tim was a dream flatmate.

Tracy’s good friend Nicole was their housemate at the time. Her reaction to the hook-up? “She actually cracked up laughing.”

For Nicole, it was old news. Tracy said Nicole had already guessed the pair had hooked up.

Maddie Rosenthal and Alcino Pereira have been an together since December, after they paired off at last year’s News Years Eve party.

Sparks didn’t fly overnight, according to Maddie. “I think living together gave us the opportunity to develop something and have it grow,” she says.

“He’s nine years older than me, so that would have been harder to get past on Tinder.”

For Maddie, living together cut game-playing out of the courtship.

“When you normally meet someone, they’re usually too cowardly to text you,” Maddie says. “But when you live together, you see each other without make-up on and after a hard day’s work.”

Over two months their union grew organically, but there were still some hesitations about telling the others. “You need to make that decision to shuffle up the house dynamic. We have quite a nice family and it put that at risk,” Maddie says.

“It’s not easy to find a good share house; five other people you really enjoy living with. But with Alcino, I did have a feeling that there was something special.”

You need to make the decision to shuffle up the house dynamic.

Defying precaution, the romance is yet to jeapordise the harmony of their Sydney home. In fact, Alcino and Maddie will soon to move into the same room, freeing up space for a fifth housemate.

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